In 2024, 15% of US laborers worked remotely

Over 35% of remote-capable US workers worked from home 'all the time' in 2023

With more than 1.3 million remote workers, the New York City metropolitan area had more remote workers than any of the top 30 metro areas in the US at the time. However, the Austin, Texas, metro area had the largest share of remote workers, with more than 23% of the city's workforce working remotely.

The share of workers with remote-capable jobs working from home peaked in 2020

Every year, it seems like some study is claiming that remote work is over, and that employers are forcing workers to return to office en masse. This chart shows a much more nuanced picture of how remote work has fluctuated before, during, and after the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic—remote, hybrid, and in-person work levels have remained relatively stable since 2023.

There's some evidence that working from home has helped the environment

Those who work fully remote can have a 54% lower carbon footprint than on-site laborers, according to one 2023 study. For instance, the share of Americans driving to work alone decreased by about 7% between 2019 and 2022, significantly reducing vehicular emissions.

In early 2026, Fremont, California, topped the list of happiest cities in the US

WalletHub's annual happiest city rankings are based on 29 key indicators of happiness, including depression rates, income growth, and average daily leisure time.

Read about the tax implications of remote work's increasing popularity

Tax complications can arise when a remote employee opts to work from a state where their employer had not previously done business. Demand for remote jobs has remained high since the pandemic accelerated remote work's popularity.

Read a list of one digital nomad's favorite remote work locations

Roughly 18 million Americans travel the world while working remotely, hunting for hotels and cafes with solid Wi-Fi connections and weather. From Thailand to Greece, these digital nomads have worked all over the world in the years since remote work has become more popular.

In a survey of US Gen Z workers, 53% were freelancing for at least 40 hours per week

Overall, Gen Z has a pretty different attitude about work from previous generations, partly because of the economic hardship they’ve witnessed being born into the Great Recession and coming of age during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Why can't we just turn the empty offices into apartments?

As both rent prices and mortgage rates rise across the US, many companies have simultaneously continued operating hybrid or remote workforces post-pandemic. A podcast episode dives into why city dwellers aren't all living in their prepandemic break rooms just yet.

Explore a map of data centers worldwide

As of February 2026, the US has more data centers (over 4,000) than the next 15 countries combined, thanks to years of investment by cloud service providers and technology companies. The next largest data center footprints come from the UK and Germany, with about 500 facilities each, followed by China with about 370.

Tracking annual working hours per worker in major countries

In 2023, China's workers averaged 2,328 hours per year, far ahead of the second country on the list, the United States, at 1,789. This chart shows the relative decrease of total work time across the world since the late 1800s.

The most common job in each US state in 2024

In 15 states, the most common job by number of employees is "fast food worker." Other most common jobs include cashiers and nurses.

15 out of 25 major US cities have a lower cost of living than their nearby suburbs

These cities are Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Boston, San Francisco, Detroit, Minneapolis, Denver, Baltimore, St. Louis, Orlando, Charlotte, and San Antonio. This article details the cost of living in major US cities versus their nearby suburbs, according to data from 2023.

See a website that tracks layoffs

A startup founder has been tracking tech layoffs since 2020. In 2025, 124,201 tech employees were laid off, per the website.

As of 2024, approximately 44% of Americans support fracking

This makes the method less popular than carbon-free forms of energy production, such as solar, wind, and nuclear power, but more popular than coal mining. Support for fracking increased 7% from 2020 to 2024, primarily due to increased support from Republicans and older Americans.

Nearly 1 in 4 Americans over age 65 is still working

While many of these Americans are often working part-time, the share varies significantly by US state. While roughly 29% of those over the age of 65 work in Vermont, only about 17% do the same in West Virginia.

Nearly 400,000 H-1B applications were approved in 2024

In 2024, nearly 400,000 H-1B petitions were approved, with about 65% of them renewals for existing workers. Roughly 70% of recipients were born in India, and nearly two-thirds of all H-1B jobs were in computer-related fields.

Texas is the state with the most energy sector employees

Texas has more than 990,000 individuals in the energy sector—roughly eight out of every 100 workers statewide. Oil and natural gas production account for more than 289,000 workers.

San Francisco has the highest-paying average monthly salary in the US at $7,092

Other relatively high monthly average salaries in major cities worldwide include those in Switzerland, specifically Geneva at $7,984 and Zurich at $7,788. This chart shows other major cities across the world with high average monthly salaries.

Union membership was 9.9% in 2024, the lowest in nearly 40 years

In 1983, for comparison, 20.1% of the US workforce was unionized, or 17.7 million people.

Tracking where people moved in the US in 2022

The latest data from the US Postal Service's change of address request system shows a decline in migration in 2022. See where people are moving and where they are leaving with this data breakdown.

Roughly 10% of US apartments were owned by private equity firms as of 2025

Almost half of those apartments were purchased after 2021. However, local community groups across the country are experimenting with ways to put residential and commercial real estate in the hands of community members.

Most US fire departments are staffed entirely by volunteers, though they tend to serve smaller communities

According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's 2024 registry, 70% of US fire departments are all volunteer, while 9.5% are fully staffed with paid employees. Volunteer departments are mainly found in rural and suburban areas, whereas most urban Americans are served by career or mixed departments.

US EV sales grew from 1.4 million vehicles in 2023, to 1.7 million in 2024

California, Florida and Texas have the highest number of electric vehicle registrations in the US, while Mississippi, North Dakota and West Virginia have the lowest. Charging station infrastructure, high costs, and range anxiety contribute to lower adoption rates.

Is there a shortage of air traffic controllers?

In 2024, the Federal Aviation Administration employed more than 14,000 air traffic controllers—crucial workers who direct traffic in and out of airports and around legal airspace. However, due to long training programs and the pandemic's aftereffects, as of 2023, nearly half of the agency's 290 facilities are understaffed. The agency has attempted to shift its hiring direction to increase its numbers.

Public school districts are subsidizing housing for their teachers

In the face of stagnant wages and a widespread teacher shortage, some public school districts are offering subsidized housing for teachers, hoping the benefit will attract and retain highly qualified educators. California has been at the forefront since 2016, with housing complexes constructed in expensive areas like San Francisco and Daly City.

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

US housing costs have risen by roughly 175% between 1991 and 2026—but a growing number of Gen Zers are becoming homeowners anyway. In 2025, 4% of homebuyers were Gen Z, up from 3% the year before.

44% of Americans say they pray at least once a day—discover how your state's religiosity stacks up against the rest of the country.

Calculate how much of your tax dollars go to each federal program based on your income, filing status, and number of children

The United States is one of only around two dozen countries with a fully federal system of government, in which power is divided between national and state governments.

11 people died from firework injuries in the US in 2024.

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

Despite being favored by 87% of Americans, Congress does not have term limits.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

The use of fungi to detoxify land and water—a process known as mycoremediation—has been used to clean up natural resources affected by the 2025 California wildfires.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

Track the location of the Voyager probes, currently between 13 and 15 billion miles away from Earth.

Some researchers have labeled nomophobia, the fear of being without your phone, as 'the phobia of the 21st century.'

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

The 2026 Ebola outbreak is hampered by a lack of vaccine against the species of the virus, heightening the need for rapid tests to aid in disease control.

In 1963, a basement renovation in Turkey revealed a passageway to a hidden, multilevel underground city that once housed as many as 20,000 people

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.